Health literacy was a topic I was introduced to during graduate school. Many of my undergraduate classes touched on literacy levels, and I had always assumed that literacy and health literacy could be compared. Well let me tell you folks, I was DEAD wrong.
One of the videos we watched asked a senior citizen, hypertensive patient, if he knew what hypertension was and why the doctor had given him a prescription to help him manage his hypertension. The man's guessed he was really hyper and the doctor was giving him this medication to help calm him down. As soon as I heard this, bells and whistles started going off in my head. This past fall I was watching a movie at a conference and this time an extremely intelligent, aerospace engineer (no joke) also admitted that most of the time he did not know what his doctor was talking about after he had had heart surgery. I think that this man was picked specifically for his background and to prove a point. Just because a person has gone to school and/or has been diagnosed for many years does not mean that they understand their condition.
Many of the medical terms we use on a daily basis, and many many more that are used by health care practitioners, are not understood by the average American. This of course is no fault of their own. Instead of health care providers educating patients on their disease and medication regiment, people are left wondering/guessing or might be so inclined to do their own research online which can be a good or bad thing. A great suggestion which came from one of the nurses was not only to tell a patient about what disease they were recently diagnosed with, but also to write it down. This way when they go see another doctor they don't have to try and guess at what disease they have or accidently inform the health care provider they have a different diseaese.
Recently NIHCM came out with an article that looked at improving health literacy among youth populations, especially in today's day and age where information is literally at their fingertips. Youth should be targeted because this is when they begin to gain some independence and start making decisions on their own. Similarly, this "may be the first time that individuals begin to think about how their identity affects their lives." It is a long article, but can easily be skimmed thanks to the bolded titles.
No comments:
Post a Comment